I had not taken a cruise in a couple of years other than a horrible Carnival cruise from JAX. I did a lot of research before selecting this one and did basically based on ports as I was trying to avoid the ports hit hard by the recent hurricanes. The reviews on this ship were mixed but I liked the timing. Because of the mixed reviews, I suppose my expectations were on the lower side. Overall, we were pleased with the cruise.

With any cruise nowadays, the food is not excellent, but we found the food to be "good." The selections were great and even after being on board 9 days, the food was still appetizing. The service in the Windjammer was excellent. We had soda beverage package and always able to get server to provide beverages rather quickly - sometimes this can be a problem. Food is Sapphire DR was good - service was excellent. Our servers were outstanding - very friendly and accommodating. Someone in our party was very high maintenance and our servers handled requests quickly and efficiently.

One of the reasons I only gave 4 stars was because of poor experience in Chops Grille. Service was extremely slow even though our server was very personable. Someone's steak was significantly overcooked - should have sent it back. The added costs for the meal for my husband and me with gratuity was $82 - not cheap. The service should have been excellent. Having said the above, the next day, I left a note at the restaurant for the manager just advising the issues we had experienced. That night he came to our table in the MDR offering his apologies and insisted we accept a token for the mishap. He provided lunch the next day in Giovonni's for the four of us. I was not expecting to be accommodated so this was an extremely nice gesture. Read more